The Legacy of the Vault Hunters
by Revolutionary in the making
Summary: This covers what the Vault Hunters are doing during the five years between Borderlands and Borderlands 2. It will eventually cover the new Vault Hunters on their adventure.
1. Prologue Part 1

Hi. So I am trying to link Borderlands with Borderlands 2 while adding the new characters(if Gearbox ever releases anything about them). For awhile, I will focus on what the old crew is doing and how Handsome Jack and Hyperion took over Pandora. I will eventually cover the new five(goddamn Mechromancer will be tough since she won't be available until a month after the release) and their reasons for going to (or living in) Pandora when anything about them is released. So the new five will replace the old four as the central focus of the stories. Then once that is over, I will add dialogue in each quest within Borderlands 2 among the five. Show how they interact with each other (even though Zer0 does not talk) within each little adventure while incorporated a story for each quest.

Okay, this will be an extremely long prologue that will encompass two chapters. I am trying to cover the background of the original group and how they knew each other prior to the trip to Pandora(which is odd because nobody seems to notice that in the intro, they are all standing around the same tree as kids). I am trying to intertwine what little information there is about them and am trying to make it work. Luckily, the new Vault Hunters will have tons of background on them and the old ones will have more story behind them in Borderlands 2.

Wish me luck.

* * *

Space. Once an untapped frontier in the eyes of many Earthlings was now becoming an entrepreneurial wasteland. Every planet was being mined for resources and corporations were now the conquerors of these planets. Intergalactic travel was no longer an ideal, but a reality. Families could easily relocate planets as if they were going a simple camping trip provided that they paid a lifetime fee to the corporate traveling subsidiaries. However, exploration, of course, was not without some trepidation. Many unfortunate explorers ran into some of the more untamed planets that also had an unruly populace of beasts and monsters.

Tales such as these only sparked to draw in those who sought out the danger and excitement, and corporate media looking to earn a quick buck used this immediate peril and spun it to make what it was seeming suicidal death wishes into romantic stories of adventure. Many explorers jumped on the opportunity seeking glory and status of heroes. Many would be adventurers traveled throughout the galaxy to many barren planets, but one planet had the greatest allure of them all: Pandora. There were tails of a secret alien Vault that was said to have riches beyond all measure. Thus many aspiring children and adults who were unable to travel and seek the riches of the Vault would ultimately take the seemingly one way trip there. Some of these unlucky dreamers would become the Vault Hunters.

Lilith, the fiery temptress of warrior, wanted riches and fame. A little girl who migrated from Dionysis acted like her unusual abilities never fazed her. She was picked on as a child for having unusual tattoos and weird powers. She did not know who her mother was and her father died for unknown reasons. However, soon afterwards a mysterious woman who claimed to be the first Siren knew that Lilith was one as well and why she had these abilities. After that moment, the woman did what she could for the young girl and trained her in the arts of the Siren. She was her surrogate mother and they lived next to an orphanage. Lilith was excited at the prospect of meeting kids her age, but the kids at the orphanage treated her like an outcast. Lilith, in response to the belittlement, developed a combative attitude and acted like the outcast, but human nature demands that misery loves company. She constantly was regaled with stories of outer space by the mysterious old woman and how it was the New Frontier and the new Wild West. She was attracted by the untapped freedom that such a life would bring so she often looked to the stars just as her father asked her to do just before he passed away in her arms as a child. She used to sneak out at night and head to the lone dying tree on the hill to gaze upon the stars. The young girl fantasized of the legend about treasure on this Pandora. She would gaze upon stars and hoped that one day, she will be away from this place and be the first to find the mythological Vault. One time during her midnight meanderings, she saw three boys standing there. She was livid that people found her secret spot. She approached the boys thinking that they would do what the other children did and shun her away, but they simply glanced at her for a second and continued to gaze back at the stars. Then, she realized that they all had the same dream. She sat down under the tree and joined them. They did this every night until they finally started to address one another.

Mordecai was a boy who carried a wooden sword on his back and a slingshot on his side. As a kid, he was the trouble maker, shooting rocks at bigger students just to test his aim. His smaller build caused him to get beat up all the time, but this did not deter him the mischievous boy. He relied on his skill and kept a distance from his enemies. A tactic that often was called cowardly, but he would immediately silence his would be attackers with a rock in the eye. He fancied himself a super heroic sharpshooter and wore an old pilot's helmet, oversized gloves and crimson red goggles. Like Lilith, he never knew his parents, but unlike her, he never seemed to care. "No es de donde soy, pero en el que sera," he'll say whenever Lilith inquired about his past. He had a small bat-like creature with a beak that was always around him. The nuns had a fit trying to contain the creature as it only followed his command. Mordecai named the creature, "Bloodwing" and he was the only person who could command the creature. Despite his dismissive demeanor, he still showed signs of anger. Unlike the others, he did not want adventure for adventure's sake, but to take "everything that this freaking universe owed" him. The young boy saw the object as his desires as the personification of all the kicks turned to kisses, all the hugs that he never received, all the wrongs finally righted, and all the things that he felt that he deserved.

Roland, another dreamer, was abandoned by his parents. He knew who they were and often wondered as a child why they chose to do without him. He wanted to be the space hero like Master McCloud, a member of the Crimson Lance Royal Guard. To be in the spirit of the fantasy, he would dress himself with a trashcan lid that would be some sort of makeshift pauldron, an old Boonie Hat that he found in the trash, and a greave made out of a sheet of medal. To complete the garish attire, he wore a red scarf that he was wrapped in as a child in front of a doorstep. He wanted to be a member of the Crimson Lance just like his hero. Roland was truly the adventurous one of the group as he would make up maps and travel around the area as if he were on a real treasure hunt. To convince the others to join him, he said it was practice and with no hesitation, they joined him to find whatever random object that they were searching for. Among the misfits, he was their leader because he was tactically minded and was prepared for anything. He saw the others as his team just like what McCloud had and as their leader, he could not let them down. He promised them that whenever the other was in need, he would go to their aid. With the romantic portrayal of his hero as his inspiration, Roland upheld this promise as if it were his life on the line.

Brick, as a child, had no care in the world. He was a simple, but humongous lad for his age that frequently played with his dog,Priscella, and his older sister. His home planet was Menoetius, but his family traveled from planet to planet. Unlike the others, he was no orphan. He had a mother that took care of him, and he only frequented the forlorn tree to not look at the stars, but look at the red headed girl with golden eyes. He was a sweet child with a simple disposition. He always wore a gentle smile on his face and little to nothing could ever get him upset despite Mordecai constantly egging him on. As he got along with the children, the hulk of the child handed his precocious crush a wilted flower. She did not know what to make of the gift, but appreciated it none the less. He wore an old boxing glove with his name inscribed in it. He went along with Roland's quests to maybe accompany the young girl who was apathetic towards him.

They grew up together and had a similar goal, but different ways to accomplish the singular objective. However, they still supported each other throughout the years. Lilith, Roland, and Roland cheered in the crowd as Mordecai won the Interplanetary Sharpshooting competition with nothing, but a revolver while his competition had Sniper Rifles. Brick even hoisted the skinny young man on his shoulder to celebrate his achievement. Despite it not being their crowd, Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai congratulated their friend and leader, Roland, as he was enlisted in the Crimson Lance to reach his dream. Mordecai, who rarely referred to Roland as the leader and saw him as a rival of sorts, saluted him. They all watched Brick's mom's fights as a ring gladiator together and each expressed jealousy towards Brick and his sister for having such an awesome mom. They consoled Brick when his beloved dog died and ensured him that he was in a better place. This however made the delightful giant into a bitter young man, but he still cared for his friends and most importantly his sister and mom. Noticing the change of behavior in her now imposing friend, Lilith made Brick a necklace with Priscilla's preserved paw on it. She smiled and gave her large friend a kiss on the cheek to keep his spirits up. Brick, in return of the gift, smiled and tossed the pink haired woman up as if she were his late puppy. Although she was initially caught off guard by his action, she started to chuckle along with her friends who observed the event. As Lilith grew more beautiful and more developed, her powers grew more as well, but this did not faze her friends. They encouraged her that her abilities were amazing and defended her against anyone who declared her as a "witch" or an "alien." To describe Lilith's powers, Roland simply stated that she "is just too hot for the threshold." Lilith adopted the statement and attitude that her friend inspired in her and gained a little swagger in her step. She was beautiful and Roland made her embrace it. One day, Roland gave her information about the other Sirens. She already knew that she was one of six and she sought to find the other four in hopes of gaining information about their abilities and share experiences. "This feeling of being an outcast would disappear," she declared as she phased from visible sight. They were a family that celebrated their highs.

But their accomplishments and happiness faded away as soon as they obtained it.

* * *

The moment that Mordecai won the shooting competition, he was met with accusations of bad sportsmanship and cheating so they stripped the title from him even before he could celebrate his triumph. The world stole everything from him for no reason and he was sick of it. This was the final straw. 2 years after the event, he picked up odd jobs as a hitman. He did not care for the mark because they were simply an accolade to him. They were proof of his skill that he never was adorned or awarded for. The recognition that he felt he always deserved.

* * *

Roland initially was happy with his time in the Crimson Lance, but that soured when nepotism and corruption plagued his tenure. He served three tours on Promethia one after another hoping to secure a shot at being in the fabled Royal Guard. He excelled in training and his leadership and overall aptitude were exceptional, but never went beyond the rank of Soldier which really meant that he was at the front lines on Promethia while established soldiers with wealthy backgrounds hung out at headquarters acquiring all of the accolades. He was natural medic, a skill that he required due to the reckless behavior of his hulking best friend, and was savvy with technology despite his humble upbringing. Despite his excellent marks, he only obtained the level of grunt and his antagonistic superior who took the spot that Roland was petitioning the higher ups for was chosen by Roland's hero and his rival's father, Master McCloud, despite the obvious incompetence of his son. However, Roland continued on and decided to master combat with the Scorpio turret that Atlas commissioned to every engineer. Using his militarily tactical mind and his natural tech expertise, he found creative ways to spec the turret and modded a built-in support system into it so could give out ammo to anyone within the proximity of it. Envious of his subordinate's ability, Machinist McCloud stole credit for Roland's innovations and claimed them as his own.

To further embarrass Roland, the thief forced Roland to watch while he displayed these modernizations in front of high command which consisted of Roland's hero. Roland uncharacteristically lost his cool and confronted the braggart after the show was over. He glared as he watched the man shake the hands of high ranking officers such as General Knoxx and Lieutenant Typhon. Before he could utter a word as they approached him about "the innovations of next generation armaments," the man walked by and snubbed Roland as he soaked in the adulation. However, it was not like he did not notice Roland because he gave Roland a sly, but smug smile before returning to the company of the officials. This infuriated Roland and he stamped off to the bar to drink until he stopped feeling emotions anymore. His superior officer felt that this was an excellent opportunity to rub salt in the wound. "You are nothing. You have always been nothing," he teased as the stench of alcohol engulfed the drunken soldier. His teasing seemed to do nothing to anger the stammering engineer, but this lack of reaction only fueled the antagonizing officer. "You want to know something," the man hissed in his ear like a snake. "Your parents knew that you were a useless sack of shit from the beginning." This startled the drunk out of his stupor and animosity became more apparent. This did not deter the clown and only fueled him. "Yeah, I read your profile, asshole. They most have had foresight or something because, here, you are," he started to cackle completely oblivious to the drunk reaching behind him. "A stupid kid who tries so hard to ignore his past and thinks he can be something special." Roland gritted his teeth and was trembling with fury, but the provoking officer continued on laughing despite Roland's discomfort. He placed his arm around the disgruntled Roland and got close to his ear to make sure he heard what he was going to say next. "I wonder how much your whore mother charges for a blowjob."

But Roland stayed his blade while gritting his teeth. Under his drunken stupor, he became disillusioned with the Crimson Lance stated goal. Roland then partnered up with an Atlas higher up named Higgins who needed his dirty laundry taken out and had a keen eye on Roland since his talent was undeniable. Eventually, Roland took command of his own unit who acted like the space hero that he always envisioned himself to be. His squad consisted of three other individuals: Aebri, Boozer, and Scraps. Aebri was an acrobatic dark haired woman with a green streak in her hair and emerald eyes who specialized with the sniper rifle. Despite being extremely conscious of Crimson Lance rules, the Lance had it out for her because she was one the few women in the division so she has a history of receiving unjustified detriments. Roland did what he could to erase her detriments and she wouldn't be unjustly court marshaled. Scraps was a dark skinned man just like his commander and never parted from his shades. He often idolized Roland for his heroics and admired Roland as a dedicated Crimson Lance Officer. Boozer was a gruff soldier with a twin mohawk. Despite his name and appearance, Boozer was surprisingly introspective and saw Roland's growing fatigue with the Lance. Under Higgins, the group conducted multiple elicit affairs unknown to the rest of the crew. Roland grew suspicious and searched for intel on any of Higgins actions. Eventually, he found a file indicating that Higgins was siphoning money from Atlas and was planning to pin it on Roland's unit. The warrior saw the writing on the wall so he eventually set up the crew to deploy to Pandora in an effort to be somewhat free from Atlas control. There he hoped that the crew would leave the Lance and search for the Vault. Higgins saw through this and planned to have the entire unit eaten alive by Crumblers. When that failed, Higgins decided to take matters in his own hands and eventually had the unit gunned down 500 clicks north from New Haven. Roland swore on his last breath that he will get vengeance on the man.

And he did. Roland avenged the deaths of his crew and killed Higgins. Now hunted by the Crimson Lance, Roland hid on Pandora as his dreams dwindled. He was no hero like Master McCloud. He let his squad down and now he was a wandering gun for hire on a barren planet. He was a lost soldier.

* * *

Brick was starting to become more violent with his childhood friends separated from him. Nothing seemed to quell his unsolicited fury except for his sister. Maybe it had to do with his mother who was once a renowned gladiator who participated in many tournaments broken and struggling to pay rent or even her hospital bills. Her sleazy manager ran her down and decided to bleed her dry financially and physically as much as possible. When his mother finally passed away, his sister was all Brick had left and all he could rely on for support. The greedy advisor demanded more from his former and now deceased fighter's offspring, but Brick's sister fought him off. Suddenly, she went missing. She disappeared in the middle of the night. The lonely giant desperately searched for her everywhere. Eventually, he found out that she was in Pandora for unknown reasons.

Brick did not have the skills or the currency for space travel so he became the bodyguard of the only man who knew of his ability: his mother's promoter. The hulk did whatever his boss asked him to from rampant murder to scaring off the competition. He never fought in the arena because, "the arena may be for animals, but not monsters." Brick continued to do this until, one night after another odd job, he heard his boss speaking in an Echo recorder. "Yeah, I have a freakin' one man army, here," he bragged as he sneered. "Brick can bend friggin' steel, man. Speaking of which…" The man looked around to see if anybody was around before whispering into the recorder. "So how was that shipment to Pandora? Yeah, I bet the bitch would not shut up. Like mother, like daughter." Suddenly, the steel door dented in causing the sleazy man to jump. Another metal clang busted through the room and suddenly the entire door collapsed. Smoke covered the entrance and the exit and a large man stood between his would be next victim and his freedom. The promoter trembled, but a large fist aimed towards his head silenced before he could scream.

* * *

Lilith did whatever she could to obtain information on the sirens. She stole objects such as ships and money with her abilities to travel throughout the galaxy and even killed an unlucky individual who spotted her. Eventually, her criminal activities caught the intention of Atlas who had the misfortune of having a surprising ample amount of information about the Sirens for peculiar reasons and thus being her prime target and victim of her actions. Lilith was undeterred by them and continued her cat burglary. She needed to find out about her origins. It haunted her ever since she was kid. She wanted answers and would do anything to obtain them. Then in one attempt to hack into the Atlas database went to hell.

She was captured while she was stilled phased which was unusual in itself then she saw her captor. She adorned the same tattoos that Lilith was born with. She has the same exact markings and the same unusual golden eye color, but had pale skin and blonde hair. Lilith stood in her cage while still phased wondering how she was caught. Before the red head could ask, the pasty woman spoke with a thick Russian accent, "Another Siren and it appears that you can enter another dimension immune of sight and attacks of this one." Lilith was shocked by the analysis. This woman knew more about her abilities than she did. "How did you know that?" The woman chuckled as she signaled Crimson Lance soldiers to transport the cage, "It appears that our little thief knows little of her ability. She will make an excellent test subject." Lilith glared at the bitch, but the Russian vixen was undaunted by the daggers. "It is called Phasewalk, by the way," she smugly sequined while turning her back on the captive Lilith. Lilith watched her stroll away as she was being carried away to her apparent doom, but she would not relent. She turned to her transparent state which the captors were ambivalent towards. While in what she now knows is a separate dimension, Lilith closed her eyes and focused all of her energy. "I've done this only a total of once,"she said to herself. She knew that she could only hold this state for a moment and she knew that the longer that she held, the more energy was built up. She reached her peak and unleashed a huge blast of energy that knocked the men down and broke the container holding her. She quickly ran out of the cage while picking up a SMG. She scattered fire in all directions and eventually hijacked a ship off the station. Lilith vowed to find that woman and get more information on the Sirens.

* * *

They were all separated and each had their own ambitions. Nothing seemed to ever bring them together ever again. Brick was headed to the deserted Pandora. Roland was a hired gun simply looking for a purpose in life. Lilith was searching throughout the galaxy for her origin. Mordecai was preoccupied with being an assassin for hire. There paths seemed to stray farther and farther apart until a beacon from Pandora was sent out with the words, "The Vault is real!"

* * *

Roland overheard the message in a bar and immediately made reservations to the desolate planet. Brick was already headed their to find his sister. Lilith found it highly suspicious that Atlas immediately intercepted the message and figured that the woman who knew of the Sirens and may have been headed there as well. Mordecai saw his chance to reclaim everything that he felt was taken from him. As if destiny took advantage of this rare opportunity, the 4 childhood friends found themselves waiting for a cab into the town. They immediately decided to find the vault together(with the added bonus of finding Brick's sister on the planet). It was just like their childhood adventures except on a more massive scale. Roland was the tactician on the battlefield and controlled gunfights with his Scorpio turret. He decided the team's missions and approaches as well as healed any injuries. Mordecai was the team's sniper and pistol expert as well as scout with the help of his trusty Bloodwing. Lilith was the elemental specialist with a grasp on Sub-machine Guns and her Siren powers allowed her to escape confrontations. Brick was the demolitions man who relied on brute strength. As soon as they got off the transport while ignoring the talkative cabdriver's rants and warnings, an image of a beautiful woman entered their minds and told them that she would help them find the vault. They listened cautiously and then stopped being so when it became obvious that she was helping.

They've known each other for years. Each one of them had vastly different backgrounds, but had one singular and similar goal: find the Vault. With that goal in mind, the braved every obstacle Pandora threw at them. They endured every oddity that the populace had and made sure to make their mark. They've killed mountains of bandits, beasts, a race of highly advanced precursor guardians, and what could only be described as vagina like abomination with sprawling tentacles that the guardians wanted to keep from leaving the Vault. Once they reached their childhood dream of finally finding the vault, what was supposed to be a feeling of overwhelming accomplishment after an intense battle only left much disappointment. The four of them stood in awe on the derelict platform while snow fell on their heads expecting…no, hoping that more would come. When the realization finally donned on them that this was it, the predictable reaction ensued.

"What. The. Fuck?" Mordecai uttered as the battle weary Bloodwing perched on his shoulder. "I can't believe this shit."

"Man," Roland threw his gun down in the snow. "This is some bullshit!"

"What the fuck was the point of everything if there was no fucking treasure?" Lilith concurred as she crossed her arms.

Brick simply fell on his knees and unleashed animalistic fury on the ground.

Suddenly a familiar voice echoed in their heads and they grimaced.

"You opened the Vault," the woman sounded relieved. " I'm sorry I couldn't warn you about what was in it, but for you to be there to stop it, it couldn't have unfolded any other way. You did well, and your actions haven't gone unrewarded. The Key won't open the Vault for another 200 years, but I'm sure Tannis will pay you quite the fortune for it! Now, go. I'll be watching."

"I want that bitch's blood on my fists," grunted the behemoth of a man.

Roland glanced at the key that fell from the deceased Commandment Steele as she was impaled by the creature. He picked his gun back up, walked over towards the object, and reached down to pick it up. The bulky dark skinned man glanced at his compatriots and saw sullen and angry faces.

"Alright," he finally released a sigh as he clenched in the key. "Let's TC a vehicle and get the hell out of here."


	2. Prologue Part 2

Okay. This is part two of the Prologue. I have not decided if I want to go through the DLC adventures or not, but since there is not much information on the crew between the five years of Borderlands 1 and 2, I think I kind of have to. I will only go into detail with three of the DLC adventures. Also note that how I'm writing the adventures will be exactly how I'm writing the Borderlands 2 quest. Although I read that the new crew will be more talkative than the old, I think I can still get something out of it. And no, I do not ship at all unless the canon makes it official that the characters are in a relationship. Also, I am not too happy about the news(story wise, game-wise, I am fucking ecstatic) that Borderlands 2 will have more playable characters than the five. It makes the entire story here a lot of work, but I will work with what I have at the moment. The goal here is interaction between the characters. I highly doubt that they were just mute when people gave them quests or they let shit happen without much of a sly remark or such.

* * *

The three of them stood in the room at a broken inn in New Haven waiting for their leader to arrive with the cash from selling the now useless Vault key. They were too broken by the disappointment to vocally speak on the matter. Lilith sat at the table with her hand holding her head up. Brick paced back and forth with nothing but a grizzly scowl on his faith. Mordecai sat by the window and watched his pet fly around aimlessly around the town. Each had a story that hoped would be resolved by the Vault.

Lilith glanced over at Mordecai who stared endlessly out the window. She smirked knowing that Mordecai's childhood tendencies were still intact. He always found the nearest window to peer out of when he was mad about something. She remembered one time in their childhood when Mordecai would get scolded by nuns and openly embarrassed due to their brand of corporal punishment. He would storm up to the attic and just stare out the window as if he were perching like a bird. Lilith would always sneak up on him just to tease him. She couldn't resist doing so because he always took himself so seriously.

"Mordy," she taunted while breaking the silence in the room. "Who are you taking a peak at over there? I'm sure Helena would love to show that fine ass of hers in person."

The masked assassin showed obvious disgust at his partner's suggestion.

"The hell are you on about, woman?"

"Oh, don't be like that," the red head cooed as she placed by of her hands underneath her chin and slightly leaned over the table to act interested. She smiled slightly knowing that he was just as easily flustered as he was in childhood. "I know you love a woman with half her face melted off."

Mordecai simply sighed and returned his gaze back on his pet Bloodwing. 'Classic Mordecai,' Lilith thought. 'Always trying to act cooler than he really is.'

"So," the Siren continued ignoring her friend's obvious annoyed expression. "Where are you headed to after all of this?"

Mordecai didn't turn to face her and kept his focus outside. He knew that many denizens on this wretched planet wanted them dead for revenge, money, or personal glory. He understood why they would since if he were among these murderous civilians and denizens of the planet, he'd be the first to take a crack at the "Vault Hunters." However, the tireless hunter of men refused to allow the hunted to become the hunter of him.

"I'm staying on this planet," he muttered to the girl without giving her any eye contact. "There is a lot of Big Game on this freakin' planet and plenty of opportunities to make a name for myself here."

"What about my sister?" the bloodthirsty giant interrupted who was obviously slightly annoyed by his comrade's selfishness.

Mordecai was not even the startled by the gigantic man's interrogative unlike Lilith who nearly fell out of her chair. Throughout their journey, Brick continued on about the whereabouts of his sister only to be quelled by Roland and Lilith who kept convincing him that finding the Vault was a once and a lifetime opportunity and as soon as they found it, they'd look for her. The masked warrior, however, was never too concerned for Brick's reason or his sister and this annoyed the behemoth despite having to work with the apathetic individual.

"Look around, pendejo," Mordecai responded in a lethargic tone. "What do you think happened to her?"

"What are you trying to say, little man?"

"I'm saying that the nina is dead," Mordecai finally turned around and stared into the eyes of the beast.

Brick flipped over the table Lilith had her feet on and also knocked her over as well. He stomped over to Mordecai and towered over him. Mordecai was not astounded by the display of anger nor was he afraid. He got up from the chair and smirked in the brute's face. Brick snarled at him and glowered at the Assassin while Mordecai kept his cool. He knew that Brick could tear through like tissue paper. He watched as the man went toe to toe with Pandora's worst with nothing but a few explosives and his fist. Mordecai clenched his pistol from his holster and was waiting for the monster to raise his fist.

"Come on," Mordecai taunted as he looked up to the man. "Make my day."

Brick perturbed by the man's arrogance raised his huge fist over the feeble, but fearless man and Mordeaci drew his Unforgiven revolver as quickly as possible.

"Hey, guys," Roland shouted while opening the door to the room unknowingly interrupting an ensuing fight and looking down at the stacks of cash. "Turns out the payday for the key was wor…"

Roland looked up and saw Lilith on the ground underneath a table, Mordecai holding a pistol at Brick's head, and Brick's mammoth sized fist just a mere inch from Mordecai's face. The leader immediately dropped the wad of cash and dashed over to the fallen Lilith.

"The hell are you guys doing?" Roland demanded as he lifted the table off his red head friend. He tried to check if Lilith was hurt, but Lilith placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded towards him to assure that she was fine. "I leave for one minute and you guys are already trying to kill one another."

"Please," the giant of a man scoffed at the idea that Mordecai had a chance of killing him. "Little man likes to keep his enemies at a distance. He is helpless up close."

"Oh," Mordecai was pleasantly surprised by Brick's analysis. "Well watch me put sunshine through that empty ass head of yours and skin you afterwards, puto."

"Enough!" Roland got between them and switched gave both men angry looks. "I know you guys are angry, but look at what we accomplished together."

"Accomplished?" Lilith interrupted sounding almost delirious of Roland's interpretation of success. "We been rolling around on this dust ball of a planet that smells like pissed on pants that has not been washed in years, talked to a bunch of interplanetary redneck hillbilly idiots who I suspect must shit bullets since we've found extra ammunition in toilets, and through all our trouble and hopes of finding 'riches and power and all that shit,' we fight a giant vagina monster with tentacles that has a peculiar weakness of a purple shaped clitoris (no, the irony of it is not lost on me and I am surprised that you men managed to know where it is) that turned the woman that _**I've**_ been searching for into calamari kabob. And all we received for it was a few lame ass weapons. If you think that is an accomplishment, I'd hate to see a failure in your 'oh so leaderish eyes', Roland."

The men just looked at the sole woman of their group in awe of her monologue. Brick immediately put his fist down and Mordecai holstered his pistol. Roland tried to approach the female and took a step forward.

"Lily, look. I'm sorry…"

"No," the fiery Siren held up her hand. She was already pissed off at two of them for flipping a table onto her and ignoring her as if she were inconsequential, and now her so-called "Squad Leader" interprets this journey as anything good and not a living hell just sent her over the edge. "Don't touch me. I'm going to try to find any sort of clean water on this fucking hellhole of a planet and take a much needed shower hoping, but failing miserably to 'accomplish' washing the stink of a pussy monster. And then, I'm going to get piss drunk at a bar where a bunch of hillbilly assholes will probably grope me because they have not seen a woman in years and pretend that this entire nightmare has been just that: a dream. So with that, assholes, I'm out."

The woman furiously walked out and slammed the door behind her. The men continued to stare at the door with their jaws dropped. They heard a barely audible scream, "I am surrounded by fucking dumbasses."

"So," Mordecai finally said. "How much did Tannis give us?"

"Oh, yeah," Roland picked up the wad of cash and dropped it on his table. "She gave us over 7 million for the key and our silence about the location of the artifact."

"Where did that crazy lady get this kind of dough?"

"Who cares?" Roland assured his skinny friend. "Let's celebrate now and…"

"What about my sister?" Brick demanded.

"I haven't forgotten about her, Brick," Roland patted the giant on his shoulder. "When I find a lead, I'll tell you. But for now, my giant friend, let's grab a few drinks."

"What about Lilith?" Mordecai asked in a bit worried tone.

"She said in her little bitchfit that she will be getting a drink too," Roland remarked. "We got to make sure she does not get a little too crazy tonight…as the gentlemen we are."

* * *

"CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG!" the crowd cheered the feisty lady on as she downed drink after drink.

Lilith slammed the drink on the bar, lazily lifted her hand up, and slovenly demanded, "Gimme one more..."

"I think you had enough..."

"Listen, asshole. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear," the drunken woman raised her SMG and pointed it at the bartender. "This is Hellfire SMG. Hellfire SMG, this is pretentious fuckwad bartender who is about to turn into motherfucking charcoal if they don't pour me another motherfucking drink."

The bartender quickly poured into Lilith's glass and ran out the door. Lilith looked at the glass with tons of haze in her eyes and then looked out the door where the terrified bartender scurried out. She shrugged her shoulders, ungracefully climbed over the bar and grabbed a few bottles of hard liquor.

"Well fuck...loots be mine," Lilith mumbled to herself as she opened one bottle and began to down it. "This is a better pay off than that bullshit Vault."

As the Siren continued her drunken tirade, her three companions watched with fascination and disgust from afar at a booth.

"The woman has less class than a 3 way skag gang bang," Mordecai shook his head.

"Lilith is truly a lady after my own heart," Roland smirked and turned to his friends while holding a beer. "Okay, now let's get down to business shall we?"

Roland reached into his Storage Deck and pulled out a holographic map of Pandora. He stretched the hologram over the table and an image of the planet emerged.

"Where did you get that?" the masked sniper asked as he waved his hand through the hologram.

"We have cash, man," Roland took a swig from his drink. "We might as well be professional."

Brick was somewhat agitated by the display as it did not spell out exactly what he wanted to know, "Where is my sister?"

"Calm down, big guy," Roland raised his hands trying to ease the giant off him. "We searched all over this desert so your sister is not obviously here."

Brick glared at his leader with murderous intent. Roland sensed the hostility and quickly tried to stave off the monster with good news.

"She has to be on this planet, however," he continued and pointed to the hologram which displayed four red dots on the planet. "There are only 4 docking ports on Pandora. We already been through one and the next closest and most inhabitable town with a port nearby besides New Haven is Sanctuary. The only way to get there is through T-Bone Junction, but..."

"But," Mordecai interrupted while chugging his bottle. "That area is Lance infested and we ain't equipped to take on an entire army for the sake of taking on an entire army."

Roland, surprised by his comrade's inquiry, smiled, " But fret not, guys. I have a plan. We gain resources from people who have them. Apparently the maker's of your favorite pistol, Mord, need assistance with a little infestation problem down at their cove."

"So we help them out," Mordecai looked into Roland's eyes. "Hopefully not for free, I hope."

"Of course not. We are robbing them blind as they pay us," Roland lifted his bottle and Mordecai lifted his as well and their bottles clanged against each other. "So as I was saying, we help these chumps out, get paid, be in their debt, and they just might help us with our situation of getting through that canyon."

Brick was satisfied with the plan and took a huge gulp of his bottle that looked like a sippy cup in his hands. He got up and started to head out.

"Where are you going, strong man? Ain't you going to celebrate with us?" Mordecai inquired the giant.

Roland placed a hand on his skinny friend and smiled at the behemoth, "We'll search for your sister tomorrow, Big Man. Don't worry."

Brick grunted and continued towards to the exit. Once he left, a drunken Lilith stumbled over to the occupied table. The guys looked at the weary-eyed woman as she clumsily placed her half empty bottle on the table and sat next to Roland. She leered at him as if he were a piece of meat and a smirk appeared on her face.

"I wonder if it's true what they say," her eyes completely focused on Roland ignoring Mordecai's prescense. The stench of alcohol etched in her breath made Roland almost turn his head away in disgust.

"What do you mean?" Roland's tone showed that he was almost afraid to ask. Completely oblivious to his hesitance, Lilith crawled over to him in the seat and traced circles in his chest. Her ass was in the air and her pale golden eyes fervently on her leader's. Roland's eyes started to quiver from her face to her tattooed cleavage, but was trying and failing to not look.

"I wonder if it's true," she smiled at his uneasiness and let the words linger into a soft whisper as she traced her finger down his chest and onto the middle of his stomach. She leaned in closer so her lips were literally less than an inch away from his ear. She bit her bottom lip as her hand approached Roland's crotch. "What they say about black guys..."

Before he could react, Lilith squeezed Roland's package firmly with her adventurous hand. Roland immediately jumped which elicited a light chuckle from the woman.

"Someone's a little excited," her eyes widened with glee and moved closer to the rather jumpy man. Mordecai, who was watching the whole thing, was as astonished by the sudden turn of events and knew when he was in the way.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you, muchachos, to your own devices," he chuckled as he grabbed his beer and left the booth. Roland looked in dismay as his male companion left, but Lilith paid him no mind. She grabbed his chin with one hand and directed his face towards her's.

"Eyes on me, cowboy," Lilith teased as her face became more flushed. "I want to see how long a soldier can stand at attention"

"Lilith," Roland finally said. "You are drunk."

"And you're sexy," she immediately retorted and she immediately lunged at him only for him to back away from her advances. Visibly peeved by this, she straddled him so he couldn't get away. She held on to his shirt and blew into his ear, "C'mon, Roland. Don't act like you never wanted to. All of those cold nights in the desert."

"Lilith, we are friends," Roland tried to ward her off meekly.

"And we can still be friends," she leaned closer to his lips noticing that the resistance has faded. Before their lips embraced, she stopped a mere millimeter away. "I just want you to open up my Vault, Vault Hunter. I promise the reward will be worth more than actual one."

* * *

"Urgh," Lilith held her head in pain. "Fuck man, I feel like someone played pinata with my fucking head."

"Stand up, soldier," she heard Roland's overbearing voice command her. In response to this, she immediately gave Roland the middle finger.

"Fuck you, asshole," Lilith responded as she wiped her eyes and yawned.

"You may have already had," Mordecai snorted trying to stop himself from laughing.

"Wait...what?"

Roland immediately interjected and helped Lilth up to her feet, "We're on another mission."

Lilith was still confused and began to look at her surroundings. She saw dark and luminous clouds in the sky She saw lightning crackle from the sky. On the ground, she saw plants and trees which was a surprise in itself since this is a completely different terrain than she had been used to. It would have been pleasant if the trees weren't dead and did not look like props from a horror film set and the whole place did not reek of "really fucked up shit happened here" and a healthy dose, "Get the fuck out of here."

Lilith looked at her teammates in awe. All three of them knew what was about to come.

"I better be drunk."

* * *

And there that is. Review, subscribe, have an orgy...do whatever comes natural, man...or woman...or transexual.


	3. Fucking Zombies, man

With the profiles out and all of the information out about the game besides the game itself(of course). I can finally get somewhere withe story. As you might know, they retconned the beginning of the intro of the first Borderlands as in all of the characters aren't close to the same age. I don't really feel like changing that in my story because Burch did not notice that the picture in the beginning hinted that they(The original Vault Hunters) all knew each other as kids and it kind of makes sense that they would because would you explore a crazy planet like Pandora looking for something like the Vault with complete strangers? Didn't think so. So my reasoning for the different origin is quite complex and kind involves the mixture of hard science(Theory of Relativity) and common sense. If you don't care and are willing to accept that this is an alternate continuity, fine. Just skip down the line and get your read on. If not or are willing to read it, do so. I will be re-adapting the origins when the supplemental material comes out about each Vault Hunter. I won't touch on much Roland after the DLC adventures are over since he has an entire book coming out soon.

Here is the hard science part: To explain why the characters are aged differently has to do with space travel or going faster than light speeds(FTL speeds for short). According to Einstein, time is relative. If I could apply it and something more practical, let's say that you decide to go on some space advenrture. Of course, we have to assume that you already have a ship that travels FTL(I won't explain just how fast it is. Just know that it is faster than light) and there is way to travel. So you go on this adventure for what seems to be for a few months and then come back. You notice that everything and everybody seems older. Why is that? Well for what is a few months to you has really been years past since your adventure. Going FTL means that you are literally going faster than time itself hence why the coin the term light years to measure distance between galaxies. So in a theoretical approach to the story, Lilith has done nothing but travel to and from Dionysus to investigate where and how she was born. Hence why she is the youngest compared to the rest when she finally decided to go to Pandora. Roland did a few tours from and into Promethia so he has spent the second most in space travel. Mordecai went straight to Artemis and stayed there so he has not really traveled much which why he is the oldest. Brick came straight from Menoetius years after the other three left hence why is somewhat disconnected from his childhood friends and is older than both Roland and Lilith but younger than Mordecai. Their age indicates just how much they traveled. Assuming that the profiles are indictive of how old they are in Borderlands 2, in this setting, Lilith is 22, Roland is 29, Brick is 31, and Mordecai is 34. In this setting they are all born in Menoetius.

Common sense part: The planet of origin is weird since they are all from different planets. Problem is that it has been stated that Promethia is uninhabitable and Roland could not have possibly been born there(The Lance did not have female officers prior to Mikey being the President of the corporation and 'enlisted' them in response to his sexist remarks in the Crimson Assassins). So he was not born there, but enlisted there. It is safe to assume that Mordecai went to Artemis in order to seek glory in response to the whole shooting contest and Lilith traveled from Artemis to Pandora.

Spoiler alert: If you did not know, I suggest you ignore this part. If you are still reading this, I'm assuming that you do not care what the spoiler is. Lilith was dating Roland. Don't ask how I knew before. I literally flipped a coin between Roland and Brick and Roland won. So yeah, consider this seemingly a matter of clairvoyance and that this is the first fan interpretation that saw the two hook up. I always found it weird that people always matched Lilith with Mordecai up. Maybe because Roland was black...Who knows.

Anyways, enjoy and I'm sorry for the heavy exposition.

* * *

"What the fuck, guys?" Lilith yelled at the 3 men. They were somewhat startled by her outburst and fully expected her to pull a gun on them. Sure, she could get away with killing them. Their DNA was already in the New-U Station and it is not like they would remember her actions when revived. She casually mentioned this before on the journey, but in a joking manner. "A bitch gets a few drinks and wakes up in a fucking horror movie."

"Look, Lilith" Roland tried to calm her down. He placed his hands on her shoulders to calm her down, but she was still visibly peeved. "We did not want to leave you behind so we just took you with us and…"

"You could not wait a few days to go on another grand adventure?" She threw up her hands and rolled her eyes. "I mean really. We are fucking millionaires. What exactly are we doing here?"

Roland immediately lowered his voice to a whisper and looked into her golden eyes, "I know. We should have waited until you were awake or at least ready. I should have briefed on the mission and I should have at least asked for your consent, but Brick was getting insistent and if I left you behind…"

Lilith closed her eyes and sighed before glancing over to the giant, "I understand."

Brick was downright murderous on any day without needing any reason to be. He would have not have hesitated to kill someone on a whim. Giving him a reason to be mad at you was most unwise. Throughout the journey, both Roland and Lilith promised to help find his sister after they found the Vault. They found the Vault, and now they had to live up their promise.

Roland still feeling apologetic tried to add a few words, "I'll brief you on the situation since I never got the chance to tell you. Don't worry. Before we left, I took it upon myself to clean you up."

"Roland, it is not a big deal…" Her eyes widened upon realization. "YOU DID WHAT?!"

"Are you two love birds through having your love spat?" Mordecai chuckled as he polished his Dahl Penetrator Sniper Rifle. "Too many things to kill and too little time."

"You stay out of this," Lilith roared at the sniper. She then re-diverted her attention to the burly dark skinned man. "Roland, why were you—"

Suddenly, a small robot approached Brick from behind and all the Vault Hunters turned their attention to it. It was a Claptrap.

"Greetings, misinformed zombie fodder!" The robot enthusiastically called them.

"Wait," Lilith was a little worried. "Did he just say zombie?"

"Misinformed?" Roland was more angered than worried.

"Fodder?" Mordecai quickly readied his weapon.

"GREETINGS?!" Brick bellowed in disdain and to the surprise of his group.

Claptrap continued unfazed by their reactions, "I am not affiliated with the Jakobs Corporation, but they hacked me to tell people like you that they would appreciate some assistance with the overwhelming situation with the living impaired."

"Oh hell no," Lilith turned around to go back to the transporter, but Roland grabbed her arm firmly before she could get anywhere.

"I should warn you though," the little robot waved his finger to emphasize that it was going to make a point. "That they'll suck your brain out of your cranial cavity like a Frappuccino if you get to close."

Lilith gazed at Roland with an expression that screamed 'Let's get the fuck out of here,' but he was unaffected. Mordecai seemed giddy at the prospect of killing something that was already dead. The behemoth still was uncertain what was going on and just wondered when the robot would get out of the way so he could kill shit.

"If you'd still like to help, I suggest you turn on the town's defenses…otherwise," the little robot started to make its retreat. "Frappuccino. Tootles!"

"Roland, what the fuck did you get us into?" Lilith screamed at the soldier.

"Jakobs did not specify exactly what they were having trouble with…" the former Crimson Lance soldier meekly defended. "I thought it was a pest control problem."

"Oh yes," Lilith placed a hand on her hip and made sure her voice oozed with sass. "It must have been too much to ask what the problem was, right?

"Why are you complaining?" Mordecai interjected and patted Brick who was looking down the pathway completely ignoring the quarrel between his friends. "This is an easy pay day. We just got to do what you do best."

The pink haired woman narrowed her eyes at the masked man with utter disdain, "And by that, you mean what exactly, Noodle?"

Mordecai sported a cheesy grin and chuckled, "Blow their heads off. I assume you had some practice with mi ami—"

Before the sniper could finish his statement, Lilith punched him dead in the nose and knocked him off his feet, "Say another word and I'll tie your skinny ass into a knot!"

"Whoa, everybody calm down," Roland stopped Lilith from un-holstering her weapon from her storage deck. "We have a job to do. You heard the Claptrap. If we want to make this trip worth it, we have to activate the town's defense. We can't do that if we turn ourselves into kill each other first."

Lilth gritted her teeth and pulled away from his grip. She turned around her back on the two. She begrudgingly sequined, "Fine. Whatever, let's get this over with."

Roland sighed in relief and then started to look puzzled again, "Where did Brick go?"

Lilith turned around and started gaze around as well, "How could we lose sight of a guy that is over 7 feet tall?"

Suddenly, they heard bloodcurdling roars and explosions being fired in the distance. All three of them smirked in amusement. Roland helped Mordecai up as the leader pulled out his Hyperion Destroyer Rifle. Lilith nodded towards the two and responded with an unleashing of her Hellfire SMG.

"See," Mordecai dusted himself and cocked his weapon. "He has the right idea."

All three of them went into a mad sprint towards the cacophony of violence passed the derelict trees and haunted terrain. As they followed the path, they heard all too familiar scream coming from the upper level of the terrain.

"AHHHHHHHH KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

Roland, Lilith, and Mordecai did not hesitate to take action. The climbed up the ridged hill and into the opening. They saw their partner tear through the undead horde with his bare fists in a swamp. However, the horse seemed to be endless. Roland immediately sent out his turret.

"Lilith, phasewalk into the middle of the horde and blow them sky high," Roland ordered and Lilith followed without any hesitation. "Mord, stay back here behind the turret and make sure Brick does not get the massage of death."

Brick continued to punch through the mob of undead with unbridled fury and rage. One after one, they would mindlessly walk into his ginormous fists and one by one they would fall with their heads detached or necks snapped upwards. The massive man started giggling like a possessed man-child as blood began to cover his attire. The sniper made sure nothing crept between his sights and Brick's back while taking every other opportunity to take a few shots at some undead that were far into the distance.

"You like that?" he would yell.

Roland mowed down any remaining zombies that Brick may have missed which was not easy because Brick was started to get surrounded by the horde. The experienced soldier threw out another turret to have more support fire on his side. Roland turned his attention to a sudden fiery explosion deeper into the horde. It was the Siren who started to light the remaining zombies on fire in the distance. The unloving numbers started to dwindle and eventually they were all gone.

"Hahahaha," Lilith chuckled to herself with a sense of satisfaction as Brick and Roland approached her. "I'm really good at this."

"Like I said," Mordecai hurried to his gathering partners. "Easy money."

The Siren shrugged in agreement and lightly punched the hunter in the arm.

"Alright," Roland interrupted their celebration. "Mission ain't over yet. We still have to activate the town's defense and we haven't even reached the town yet."

The pink haired woman rolled her eyes and smirked a little, "Oh come on, dude. It can't be that hard to pop a few zombies."

* * *

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," Lilith repeatedly yelled out as she fired shot after shot into the horde.

"Give 'em hell, Bloodwing," Mordecai called out as he deployed the bird in the mass of undead killing machines.

They were surrounded and fighting an endless amount of waves of zombies. Roland kept deploying his turret and healed anybody that needed it, but it seemed to be of no use. As soon as they arrived to their destination, they were met with a mass of zombies and have been fighting them off since their attempt to activate the town's defense. So far, the Vault Hunters have only had two of the three town's turrets online and even with that, support, they were still having trouble holding the undead off.

"The turret!" the fearful Claptrap called out. "It is not activating itself."

Brick snarled at the pestering robot," WE KNOW!"

"Oh! I wish I had evacuated!" the robot cowered into fear.

"Brick," Roland called out to the giant who was also becoming overwhelmed. Roland was still trying to maintain control despite struggling while putting led into an incoming Zombies. "I need you to make it to that turret."

"I'm trying!" the man retorted while shotgunning and punching his way through the horde. "But there are too many."

The situation was dire, but he had to do something. Maybe if the entire group moved as a whole towards the turret, then they can secure a position. However, where the turret was located was the problem. It was isolated away from the town and reaching it would make them vulnerable of being attacked. Also, there was problem with who was going to have to activate the turret. Roland and Mordecai were the only ones tech savvy enough to activate the turret. Mordecai may have been a more favorable choice to activate because he was flimsier of the two, but his long range specialty would be missed. Roland securing it would leave the group without a solid fortification out of the open. Roland knew that sending someone out there alone was not be good for neither he, Lilith nor Mordecai, so he tried to cajole Brick to go, but he could not make a dent though the horde.

"Please don't chew on my head. Please don't chew on my head..." the little robot began mantra.

As the group kept slaying zombie after zombie, Roland kept thinking of ideas and strategies to use and hopefully keep them alive. He glanced over at Lilith mainly to check if she was struggling since her incendiary ammo did nothing to undead flesh. Despite knowing this, she kept spraying her weapon knowing that her life depended on it. Noticing something, he had an idea.

"Lilith, I have an idea, but I don't think you'll like it," Roland called out as he butted on zombie with his rifle.

Lilith did not turn towards her leader as she too was preoccupied with not getting bitten, "I'm all ears. Your plans haven't failed us yet."

"I need you to Phasewalk through the horde and come out the other side. Then, I need you to lure them away from us," Roland gritted his teeth as fought off one of the lifeless bastards.

"Are you seriously considering using me for bait?"

"We don't have much of a choice and it will save our lives. Your Phasewalk ability needs about 30 seconds to recharge. That time will be enough for you to fight them off alone while we put the turret online. This will give us enough time to activate the final turret. Once you are able to use your ability again, you can simply re-use it and run back to safety."

Lilith contemplated the idea. She was unsure if she could fight off a hundred of them, but nothing else seemed to be working. All she needed to do was fight off the dead for 30 or so seconds. It sounded easy enough in the pink haired woman's head, but she also knew that in reality, the situation could be much more dire. But they really had no choice.

"Fine," she sighed begrudgingly agreeing with the man. She holstered her weapon knowing full well that she could not use it during the Phasewalk. "Just tell me when."

"On my mark," Roland kept unleashing led into the horde while covering Lilith.

"If I see any zombies over here," the robot interjected. " I'm gonna totally run, or something. I don't know what I'm going to do no zombie, please no zombies"

"SHUT UP!" Brick roared at the annoying robot.

Mordecai smirked at the new plan and stated while giving a zombie a new cavity hole, "Chivalrous to the end. Ladies first."

"More like 'bitches last,'" she retorted.

"Go!" Roland called out and Lilith entered Phasewalk. Her body turned into a translucent blue and she ran through horde completely unaffected by them. Roland quickly adapted to the missing member and unleashed another turret so it could not only resupply them, but make up for the loss of a squad mate. The behemoth of a man kept shooting and punching and Mordecai kept firing his was a blast in the distance in which Roland had calculated that it was Lilith unleashing her Phaseblast.

"Okay," Roland called out to the remaining Vault Hunters. "We have 30 seconds to make this work. Brick go crazy on them. Mordecai sic Bloodwing on the bastards. We have to make it to that turret before she dies. "

"Time for a meal, Blood," Mordecai, again, released his dastardly pet. The bird swooped through the mob and they started to set on fire. The bird set countless zombies ablaze one by one. This could only help the Vault Hunters.

"BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOD," the mammoth screamed. If the undead could feel emotion, they would be trembling right now. Brick unleashed a fury of fists and started cutting down the enemies. Both Mordecai and Roland fallowed behind him and covered him from the back. Finally, they were getting somewhere.

"20 seconds," Roland counted to himself as he kept spraying into the enemies. As a leader, he felt personal responsibility for his squad. He convinced Lilith to partake on the suicidal task on a whim. He got the crew into this mess. So the least he could do was to make sure that they came out of this alive. He was determined to make sure that his friends made it out alive.

They finally made it to the turret. Roland signaled to Mordecai to oversee it's activation. He checked if he could send out another turret, and saw that his cooldown period was over. He then unleashed yet another Scorpio turret,"Spray 'em and stay 'em."

The turret fired round after round into the walking dead carcasses. Roland kept spraying round after round until he found himself out of bullets. He switched his weapon to a Dahl Raven. He fired burst after burst into multiple zombies. He then noticed that time was up and glanced around for his comrade Siren. Seeing that she was nowhere to be found, he was worried. Mordecai was already done activating the turret and Brick's berserk rage was starting to subside. The three combined turrets were enough to pin the mass down and way from the town, but that was not Roland's chief concern. Where was Lilith? Did she need their help? Did Roland ask too much out of her? He scanned for her pulse on his HUD, but it was temporary out of commission due to the commotion.

"Shit!" Roland murmured to himself. He then started to run into the zombie horde.

Noticing his leader's rash behavior, Mordecai yelled, "The hell are you doing?"

"Lilith needs our help. I'm going to get her," Roland grunted as he drove his knife into a zombie skull. "No one dies with me in command."

"Are you crazy?" Mordecai slashed an incoming zombie's throat and started after Lilith. "If she is dead or dieing, just wait until the New-U revives..."

"No!" Roland blasted a zombies head off and started to push through. "No one dies under my command. NOT-"

Suddenly, a blue translucent figure emerged from the zombie horde. It immediately released a blast that pushed the zombies back and started to blast her weapon at them.

"Sorry, I'm late, guys," she yelled sardonically. "Found some sweet loot on the other side so I decided to help myself."

'The gall of this woman,' Roland thought to himself. She had him worried that she might have died and she just casually mentions that she made a little detour. Roland quickly adapted to the situation and started to back pedal into town while firing his weapon.

"No need to keep firing," Roland called out to his group. "The turrets can do the fighting for us. Head into town and get some R&R."

* * *

They waited for the town defense to finally cease, and until it did, Roland healed any wounds that needed to be healed. He was there Squad Leader and medic ,and he could not send them into battle wounded. When the turrets finally ceased firing, it was a sign that the zombies were all done for. There was an leery moment of silence as the Vault Hunters sat on the bridge awaiting their next move.

"Phew! That was intense. I'm sure glad I'm not made of tasty flesh like you!" the robot finally said breaking the silence.

"How reassuring," Lilith rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"What is our next move Claptrap?" Roland asked while wrapping a bandage over Brick's arm.

"The town should be safe for now, but if you really are going to solve this zombie infestation you're going to need to talk to Dr. Ned. He's been trying to fix the problem and I'm sure he could use a hand. You'll find him at his office down on the docks," the robot started to roll it's wheel into a particular direction. "I'll open the waterfront gate so that you can be on your way. Let's go!"

"Wait a minute," the Siren interjected making the robot stop in it's tracks. "Are we sure that we still want to take this job? It is obvious that Jakob's has no idea what is going on here or at least the scope of it since they would not want the public to know about it so there wouldn't be a transmission asking for help."

"That's the point," Roland responded while helping his wounded comrade up. "There is no one here to stop this. We cannot let this zombie infestation get out of control or it will affect the planet."

"So," Mordecai asked with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "We aren't getting paid?"

"No," Roland smirked at the hunter. "We are getting paid. We are blackmailing the assholes about the information that they don't want anybody else to know."

"She could have been one of them..." Brick somberly sulked. They all noticed his uncharacteristic depression and looked at each other.

Lilith reacted quicker than the rest, rubbed Brick's arm and reassured him, "Naw, Big guy. Your sister was too tough to let a bunch of undead bastards get the best of her."

"Assuming that getting bitten causes one to become one of them," Mordecai looked over at Brick's wound and readied his rifle.

"Not likely," Roland crossed his arms and leaned against the wooden shack. "I did not see any bite marks on the zombies and they already seemed dead."

"Of course, they are dead, Roland," Lilith scoffed as she turned to him. "They are zombies."

"But some of them seemed like they've been dead for years," Roland pondered. "I think it is just the ones who have already died that are becoming zombies and are killing the folks who were alive. This means that they aren't turning anybody and are just mindless undead killing machines."

"Great, now I can rest easy knowing they aren't able to turn people into a mindless husk and will just kill me," Lilith snorted.

"The amigo robot just said that someone is trying to cure this," Mordecai interjected. "I think we should stop talking and head his way."

Roland nodded and turned to the little robot. "Alright, lead us to this Dr. Ned."

The robot started to turn it's little wheel and kept moving to the direction it was headed. The Vault Hunters followed after him, but with slightly less eagerness. Of course, the jovial robot did nothing to ease their worries as they headed to their destination.

"It's really too bad that another group of poor adventurers are going to be zombie food," the robot half heartily sequinned as it kept on rolling.

Brick was not amused and was about to punt the thing into the sea, but Roland stopped him. Lilith did not notice this and only agreed with the robot, "I'm glad that I am not the only person who thinks that this entire thing is a suicidal."

The robot finally stopped at the gate and turned to his visitors, "And O," he stopped as if he contemplating his next statement. "Oh, you know the drill."

The claptrap opened the holographic gate and watched as each Vault Hunter entered.

"So long fearless travelers! Enjoy your stay at Jakobs Cove!"

* * *

The Vault Hunters made their way to their destination through the swap and hills. The night sky loomed over them as the traveled through the cove always alert to their surrounded. Eventually, they reached a lone shack.

"Must be his place," Mordecai looked down his sights scoping for any enemies. "Looks like there is no trouble around. Might be able to catch a break here."

"Stay alert anyways," Roland ordered. "We don't want any surprises."

They slowly moved towards the house and made it to the front of the residence. Roland signaled his squad to Mord to check on the door while everyone else guarded the parameter. The Hunter stayed alert as he slowly stalked towards the front door until he heard a loud screech.

"Knew this was too easy," the Hunter mumbled and quickly turned to fire his rifle.

Flying animals soared at the Vault Hunters and the mercenaries responded with gunfire. But they were extremely hard to hit. Figuring that they should fight fire with fire, Mordecai sent his trust companion, Bloodwing after them and it made short work of the birds.

Satisfied with it's performance after it's display, he rewarded the bird with a treat, "Atta boy."

Brick ignored the pet master and his pet and headed towards the front door of the lonely shack. He furiously knocked on the door, but nobody was home.

Lilith approached the front door and saw a piece of paper hanging off of it. She picked it and started to read it. As her eyes scanned the page, she was starting to angrier with every line, "Well that is fucking great."

"What is it?" Roland inquired to her. She responded by handing him the note and then placing her hand on her hip.

Roland started to read it out loud for everybody to hear, "Screw this. I'm not hanging around here to get killed. I can protect myself better at home. If any fool finds this, I'm at my place in the bayou. Good luck reaching me, though. Just stay away. It's safer if you don't try to get to me."

"Wow, so he retreated to the personal safety of his house?" Mordecai non-nonchalantly said as he petted Blood as it perched on his arm.

"Selfish much?" Lilith snorted as she crossed her arms.

"Okay," the ex-soldier tucked the note in his pocket. "He is at the bayou so we just have to-"

"Hello fearless zombie killers," Claptrap interrupted through the EchoNet. "There are more missions available on the Jakob's Cove bounty board."

"We might as well get paid," Mordecai suggested.

* * *

So here is the first chapter in the story. I decided to cut it short for reasons such as Borderlands 2 coming out on Tuesday and not wanting to work on this shit and school at the same time(Borderlands 2 is my first priority of course). Review, get naked, and get strange if you want.


	4. House Call

I'm sorry for the delay. I know that it has been a long time and I apologize for everything and to everyone who has been waiting. I'd like to inform some people that I've been playing Borderlands 2 like it was my new addiction. I have a level 50 Zer0, 34 Axton, 50 Gaige, and a 23 Maya. Yeah, it is like that. Also, if you haven't gotten the news, there will be a new character coming around the time the second DLC comes out I predict since I suspect that there will be a new character around for every new DLC campaign. As for the new Vault Hunters, I cannot wait to eventually get to them because I've seen a lot of things done to them that run counter to their entire existence. For one, Zer0 has been butchered because, I suspect, people equate being a mystery as to having no character. Giving him meaningless traits such as a face behind that mask or an identity ruins the entire point of Zer0. He is supposed to be frustratingly mysterious. That does not make him lack character because being mysterious is practically his character. There is a difference between having no character and having no distinguishable characteristics. His motives, origins, and face are mysterious but his attitude, poise, and demeanor are not.

The new Borderlands Origins came out and...fuck I have to go back and change Lilith's origin.

Anyways, I'm through ranting. Enjoy the story.

* * *

A man with a slightly off kilter mask hinged to his face buttoned up his shirt in front of a mirror. He smirked at his reflection in the mirror pleased with his appearance. When he finished with his shirt, the enigmatic man put on his coat jacket and suddenly, a yawn from the bed slightly grabbed his attention from himself.

"Jack, sweetie," a naked woman called out as she appeared out of the bed sheets to the masked man in a tantalizing and sweet tone. "Please come back and join us."

Another pretty face appeared from the sheets and beckoned, "I want see what the Jackhammer can do."

Jack smirked as he fastened his tie, "I'd love to fire up the engine again, but I have business to take care, a planet to occupy, and entire hordes of bandits to kill so you two can just play with each other while I enjoy the show."

The man then sat down and turned his attention to the duo. Enamored by the man's request, the divas from Eden-6 immediately gave a man a show.

"Angel, give me the intel on our so-called Vault Hunters," he murmured to the aside as load moans drowned out everything else.

* * *

The gang fought their way back to the bounty board through more hordes of zombies. When they finally arrived to the destination, the guns-for-hire rested in the secure area and prepared for what lied ahead. Roland, who was also the group medic as well as the leader, took this opportunity to heal any wounds that anyone may have received. When there didn't seem to be any sign of major or severe injuries, the group checked the board for any requests. There were two.

Lilith pressed the screen on one request and saw an image of a woman appear. Her face was scrunched up and her makeup was fading. She had been crying.

"I have not heard from my husband, Hank, for weeks," the worrying woman finally said as she desperately tried to combat her tears. "He worked down at the Jakobs Mill. I fear the worst; I must know what happened to him. Please send me any news that you can. I am offering a reward for anyone who can find him."

The recording ended. Lilith closed her eyes and sighed and then clicked on the next request. A familiar face appeared on the screen. It was the planetary arms dealer, Marcus. Apparently, he had request.

"Marcus here. Would you believe it? I found a market for rotten, stinky undead bird eggs. Some crazy bandits in the east think they are some sort of delicacy," He cringed at the thought of it and then shrugged his shoulders. "As I like to say, there is always opportunity! I hear the crusty corpse eaters like to nest on coastline. If you get me a shipment of eggs, I'll pay you handsomely."

"Marcus always pays well," Mordecai inputted.

"He also causes most of our problems by selling weapons to the bandits that terrorize the planet," Roland coldly interjected before closing the board. "Okay, it might be better if we split up and tackle both together."

"Did you not watch horror movies?" Lilith looked at him with annoyance. "Rule number 1 in horror flicks: Do not under any circumstances split up."

"We are not in a horror movie, Lilith," Roland rolled his eyes at her. "And if, anything, Brick is the biggest and scariest thing on the island. We don't have much to fear."

Brick chuckled at the comment and Mordecai smirked. Lilith crossed her arms seemingly upset that Roland can never get a sense of humor.

"Anyways, we should split up and tackle each task and once we are through, we meet up back here," Roland explained. "Me and Lilith will take care of this Reiss situation. Mordecai and Brick should search for these eggs since Bloodwing was great against these corpse eaters."

Mordecai smirked at the arrangement and teased," Now are you sure that is why you are paired with Lilith, Roland?"

"What are you implying?"

"I don't know," Mordecai's smile grew wider and began to wipe his blade in odd manner. "You two might take a detour from collecting tapes to making some of your own."

The Siren's eyes widened and she became flustered at the insinuation. 'Was Roland trying to be alone with her?' She still wanted answers from him as she still did not know what happened that night. But what was she more upset about? The fact that Roland took advantage of her or that she could not remember it?

The former Crimson Lance soldier was not amused by the suggestion, "Mordecai, pairing you with me to take out birds is stupid because it would not do much. Throughout our adventure, I've had to heal you the least because you keep a distance from the enemy. Pairing Brick and Lilith would take out support since they both like to get up close and personal. You and Lilith don't match up well with each other because your styles clash. Lilith could be on the other side of the horde from you and be in need of help and you are completely incapable of reaching her. It would leave her vulnerable to attack. Pairing you with Brick makes the most sense because unlike you, he can endure pain without risking much and you don't have to worry about healing him."

"Whoa…" everybody in the group said at once, but Roland who continued with his monologue.

"Considering the situation, we have to optimize combat efficiency to suit this scenario," Roland looked at Mordecai. "These pairings do that."

"Whatever, amigo," Mordecai held up his hands. "But I don't want to catch you two in the throes of lov—"

"Anyways," she cut Mordecai off right there trying to hide her blush. She wanted to get off this topic so she turned to her attention to the giant. "Brick, how's the arm?"

Brick was befuddled by the random inquiry about his arm, but answered anyways, "I'm fine."

"Good," Lilith nodded her head. "That's really good socanwegetouttaherenow?"

* * *

The group split up to begin their quest. Roland and Lilith wished the two good luck and the pairs of duos went their separate ways. The pink haired Siren and the grizzled soldier fought through zombie hordes without much trouble. However there was some animosity directed at each other as well as each other. As they walked through the perilous forest, Lilith was starting to grow more annoyed with Roland. It was bad enough that, in her mind, he took advantage of her, but now he did not respect her enough to even address what happened. She did not like being used and thrown away. The more the magical warrior kept thinking about it, the angrier she became and the more she glared at the oblivious man. And Roland's obliviousness only fueled her resolve to remain angry at her in which proceeded the most awkward walk between two people fighting zombies. Even a recording about a man declaring his love for his wife and kids didn't ease the tension.

"Dearest Anna. I've arrived at Jakobs Cove and you'll be pleased to know it seems a jolly and lively old town. I know being away from you and the children will be difficult but it's only for a few cycles. The pay is just too generous to pass up. I'll work hard here and be back to you and the girls soon. My brother will take good care of you in the meantime. Love, Hank."

"Hmph," Roland placed the EchoRecording in his pack and turned to the agitated Siren. "He sounded like a good man."

"Yeah, it is nice to see that there are _**some**_ men in the six galaxies that think of anything else besides themselves," Lilith retorted with a tone that was drenched with contempt.

Roland, unsure how to approach the feisty woman, stood there and stared at the dismissive woman, "Umm right…so let's find another one."

So they continued to search for the next tape. Roland felt safer dealing with zombie hordes than trying to approach the ever sharp tongued Lilith. They eventually found the second Echo Recording. They found it in a derelict boat in the swamp. Roland listened to the Recording as Lilith continued to stare daggers at him.

"Dearest Anna. The work here is tough but honest. Oh, and the trees, Anna, the trees are amazing. You wouldn't believe your eyes. I've never seen anything like them. Sometimes I feel sad to cut them down, but it will all be worth it if I can get back to you with the money required for us (to) have a fresh start. I'm dreaming about a nice homestead in the Dahl Headland. Think on it. Missing you, Hank. ... P.S. Tell Sally that I love the hat she sent. I wear it every day. The men tease me a bit but they don't know the joy that a child's love can bring."

The mercenary shook his head as he placed the recording in his SDI, "Hopefully, we can get this man back to his family in one piece."

"Yeah," the pink haired woman sneered as she cocked her weapon. "Ms. Reiss knows that a man who respect them enough to, I don't know, not take advantage of them when they are drunk is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Wait…what?"

Lilith didn't respond and began walking away from Roland. The soldier tried to call out to her, but another zombie horde attacked. Of course, Roland's mind was now concentrated on the zombies, but the beautiful woman slaying them with him. 'Does she think that I took advantage of her last night?' the pondered as he pressed his blade in a zombie's skull. The two continued their quest to the third Echo Recording which was located a chair near a small shack. 'Must have been Reiss's place,' Roland thought. Lilith picked it up as Roland sent out his sentry gun to take care of incoming Corpse Eaters.

"Dearest Anna. I have been noticing some strange things at the mill of late. Many workers seem to be falling very ill. What is strange is that we all had our check-ups just last week and were given a clean bill of health and a vitamin from the company's physician, Dr. Ned. He is doing everything in his power but there have been some deaths. Do not worry. I will, as always, be careful. I will send an ECHO again soon. All my love, Hank."

"A clean bill of health and a vitamin," Roland lingered on those words. "Lilith does that sound strange to you?"

"Wow," Lilith clapped her hands in a slow methodical manner. "You are completely capable of showing concern for other people. I'm impressed. Truly."

Roland finally fed up with her attitude confronted her, "Lilith, what the hell is your problem?"

Lilith, not one to back down, took a step up to him despite him towering over her, "My problem is, Leader, is that you took advantage of me last night. Worse. You took of advantage of me when I was vulnerable and instead of telling me about it or at least respecting me enough to act like we made love, you act like it never happened."

Roland was completely flabbergasted by this and tried to interject, but was immediately interrupted as she continued.

"I respected you, Roland. I always have. I followed you into the depths of hell and back and I did so without question. The least you could do is act like you give a damn about me," Lilith turned around and began walking away.

The soldier tried reaching out to her, "Lilith, wait—"

He stopped as he saw the woman raise her fist in the air and her middle finger raise without at all turning her attention back to him.

* * *

"I wonder how the other two are doing," Mordecai asked as he chillingly shot down another undead bird from the sky.

"Who cares?" Brick stated as he punched a poor zombie on the way to collecting the egg. "Those two can handle themselves. We have a job to do, Mord."

Mordecai shook his head, "What happened to you, Brick? You used to be a gentle kid. Stupid…but a gentle kid"

"If you haven't been paying attention, Mordy," the behemoth of man turned to the slender man. "My sister has been kidnapped and I am looking for her."

"And?" the hunter shrugged as if it were not a big deal.

Brick was annoyed by the apathy of his companion. He clenched his fist ready to tear his head off.

"Look," Mordecai held up his hands noticing the increasing tension between them. "All I'm saying is that your sister could always take care of herself, Brick. What makes you think she even needs help?"

"I need to make sure," the blood thirsty growled. "I need to—"

"See her?" Mordecai chuckled. "And what makes you think that she wants to see how you are now, amigo?"

"What do you mean, you bird loving alcoholic?"

"I mean Brick," the hunter smirked before pulling out his machete. "You've changed. You've become a bloodthirsty hijo de puta. Are you sure you want your sister to see you like this? A killer."

Brick loosened his fist. The hunter was right. Brick has become a monster. Mordecai noticed how somber the behemoth became and then patted the behemoth on his massive shoulder.

"Look, I'm sorry for acting like I never cared, amigo," Mordecai hung his head low trying to look away from the man. "When I left for Artemis, I was sure that I could never face you guys again. I feared that I would scare you guys. Turns out, you guys turned out just as bad as I did. But if your sister sees how we are…sees what we are, I don't know how she will take it man."

Brick shook his head and turned away from his friend, "Let's hurry up and collect these stinkin' eggs."

* * *

There was an uneasy silence between the two. Roland kept trying to grab her attention, but it fell on deaf ears and cold shoulders. She felt betrayed by the very person she least expected to betray her. All over the galaxy, people have tried to experiment on her, capture her, or even burn her alive, but she never expected Roland to use her in the way he did. The two continued their search to find these recordings of a man who was probably dead in order to reassure his wife, but she was not the only person who needed reassurance. They found the fourth recording near a broken weapon vendor. Roland clicked it on to hear what it said.

"Anna. Things have gone from bad to worse. There have been rumors of people seeing the dead walk. At first these tales were laughed off at the saloon, but now people talk in the hush whispers of the truth. They say those who come in contact with the dead are always first to be ill and are, as such, the first to seek the help of Dr. Ned. The doctor assures me that he is making progress on a cure. I, for one, believe him and it is only 3 more weeks till we are reunited. Kiss the girls for me. Love, Hank."

Lilith shook her head in disappointment, "He truly was a good man."

"I did not take advantage of you," Roland immediately blurted out.

"What?"

"Look," Roland turned away trying to not meet her eyes. "I didn't tell you because I thought you would be embarrassed about the whole situation."

"Congratulations, you succeeded in that because I don't feel embarrassed about being the drunk girl who you are too ashamed to own up to."

"Lilith, dammit, just listen to me," Roland placed his hands on her shoulders. Her golden eyes completely focused on his. "Nothing happened last night."

"Then what happened?"

"It's a long story."

* * *

"And we can still be friends," she leaned closer to his lips noticing that the resistance has faded. Before their lips embraced, she stopped a mere millimeter away. "I just want you to open up my Vault, Vault Hunter. I promise the reward will be worth more than actual one."

The gorgeous woman leaned a bit closer so there lips could finally meet. He tried to resist, but deep down there was urge that wanted to kiss her just once. So he relented to her just this once… He closed his eyes awaiting her embrace. When it never came, he wondered what was wrong and opened his eyes. He saw that she pulled away and was covering her face.

Roland perplexed by this sudden action tried to see what was wrong, "Lilith, are you okay?"

Without warning, Lilith immediately heaved in his lap and splattered him with vomit. Roland was clearly grossed out by her action and pushed her off his laugh.

"Lilith, what the hell?" Roland immediately sat up from his seat as the woman startled cackling and many people who witnessed this started silently chuckling.

"Oh my God, I never felt as good as I feel now," she snorted.

"Lilith, are you okay?" Roland, now over the vomit on his pants and concerned with the person who vomited on him, tried picking her up.

"Are you kidding," she retorted as the muscular man wrapped his arms around her. "I've never felt better."

"Are you sure," he asked one more time before noticing that she was about to upchuck on him, again. "Oh, you better no—"

He couldn't finish his sentence in time and Lilith threw up on him again. Completely disgusted, Roland dropped Lilith like a bad habit and tried to find a towel or something to wipe the gunk off.

Mordecai, obviously trying to hold his laughter, walked over and gave him a rag, "The bruja can't hold her liquor apparently."

Lilith did not care for anything at all apparently as she kept laughing her pretty little ass off, "Okay, okay, I was lying before. Now, I never felt better."

* * *

"So I took you to your apartment, had a lady help you clean you up, and get you in bed, "Roland finished explaining as they searched to find the final recording. "The reason I didn't want to talk about it was…well, isn't it obvious."

"So the reason that you were acting like I was the embarrassing drunk girl at the party was because I was the embarrassing drunk girl at the party," Lilith's face grew visibly red as she happened upon the realization. "Wow, and now my life has come into full circle."

"I wouldn't dwell on it too much," Roland did what he could to reassure her. "I probably should have told you sooner. It was horrible of me to leave you in the dark."

Lilith covered her face wishing that a zombie would just eat her whole, "I can't believe I thought we had drunk sex. At first, I was open to the idea that we did then I wasn't sure how I felt about it and there was this whole thing about whether I wanted it or being angry at myself for not remembering how it was like and—"

"Wait," Roland interrupted and cocked an eyebrow. "You wanted to have sex with me?"

'Oh shit' Lilith thought as she was visibly stunned that she said all of that out loud.

"Ummm," the Siren looked around for something…anything that would take his attention away from her. "Oh, look an Echo Recording. Let's listentothatthingnow!"

Lilith immediately rushed to the final recording and turned it on, hoping that it would provide them intel on the situation and Hank Reiss's whereabouts.

"Beloved Anna. It is no longer rumors. Some curse has been set upon us here at Jakobs Cove. The dead are rising from their graves and are ravenous with a hunger for flesh. All work has stopped and we are fighting for our lives. But fear not. Dr. Ned believes there is a way to stop the horror. I have volunteered to allow him to test an antidote on me. It's the skags my dear. The filthy skags will be our salvation! The doctor says they are immune to the ailment. I am presently on my way to get this treatment at the hospital outside of town. I know it will be a success and we will be together again shortly. Pray for me, Hank."

"So, he is with the Doctor," the Siren sighed in relief. "It's good that he is alive. Now we can tell Anna the good news."

"I don't think so," Roland walked up to her and surveyed the area.

The pink haired woman was confused by his statement and inquired, "What do you mean?"

Roland pointed at the skag pile that was next to where Lilith found the recording. It had bones in the matter. "Reiss was eaten before he could reach the Doctor, it seems."

Roland sat up and looked at the now somber Lilith. She closed her eyes and shook her head, "I guess we have to tell Anna now."

* * *

Brick and Mordecai watched as their two other companions walked back into town. Lilith leaned against the shack next to Mordecai and Brick who finished collecting the eggs. Roland kept walking to the bounty board and prepared to turn in the information that he found to the grieving widow. She was shocked and audibly on the brink of tears when Roland informed her of her husband's untimely demise. She tried to hold her sobs in order to think the Vault Hunter.

" Thank you... Hearing his voice again is a cold comfort, but one I will have to accept to move on."

The message was cut abruptly short afterwards and payment immediately transferred into his account. Roland felt a steady uneasiness taking money from her, but he really had no say in the manner. He turned his attention to his three squad members who were awaiting orders.

"We are going to Hallow's End and we are going to find Dr. Ned and save this planet one more time. We are getting to the bottom of this."

The crew nodded their heads and they immediately started towards the direction to the transition point.

Before, this was all just a way to get paid. Now, the heroes had a resolve to end this.

* * *

The group trekked there was through Hallow's End to find the Doctor. They headed east towards their destination as they fought through countless zombie hordes and continued to search for Ned's home. Soon they see a sign that reads, "Creepy Treehouse" thus cluing the Vault Hunters in that they are fairly close to their destination. They found a bridge that allowed them to access higher ground which they all appreciated. However, the undead started to appear over them. Roland immediately reacted and sent out his turret as cover fire.

"Everybody get down!" he commanded as he scattered fire and threw his grenade.

Lilith, a little tired of wearing the unpleasant residue of disembodied brain, went into her trademark Phasewalk. Mordecai and Brick were too busy trying blasting undead walking carcasses to notice her action, but Roland being observant noticed this moment of insubordination.

"Lilith," he called out gritting his teeth. "The hell you doing? I told you to take cover!"

Lilith did not respond. Suddenly her transparent purple form began walking through each Zombie and as she did, the set aflame instantly. One by one, the horde of zombies dwindled as the boys stood there in awe.

"She has been holding back this whole time," Mordeaci smirked honestly impressed with his companion.

Roland was not impressed with her ability of wanton destruction. She disobeyed and order. Sure, she is single-handily took a on a massive army of undead assholes, and she is showing up her so-called equals, but an order is an order.

Soon, there was a large explosion that reduced the once menacing zombies to ash with a pink haired woman standing over them. Lilith flicked her hair and smirked as she glanced over her companions looking astonished by her feat.

"Close your mouths,boys," she teased. "I know that I'm jaw dropping hot."

Roland walked up to her with an annoyed look on his face, "Okay, hotshot, you through playing around?"

"Excuse me," Lilith crossed her arms and tilted her head. "You got something to say, Roland?"

"These two are not going to have their little love spat on a bridge filled burnt with carcasses, are they?" Mordecai murmured to the huge companion.

"You should have followed orders. What would have happened if one of us got caught in a Phaseblast?"

Brick smirked and winked at Mordecai, "Well, at least it is a change of scenery this time."

"Oh, I'm sorry do I need to ask for permission to save your lives every time I take initiative?"

Mordecai chuckled as the couple kept screaming at eachother, "When did you get a sense of humor?"

"No, but when we are on a narrow bridge filled with brain eating son of bitches, a heads up would have been nice."

"These two used to always fight back then," Brick gave a hearty laugh. "Me and you always had to put up with it."

"Well, I'll be sure to hold your hand when mommy has to put in some work, okay? Seriously, what the hell is your problem?"

"Yeah, Mordecai sat down and started cleaning his rifle. "I'm glad to see that some things haven't changed."

"Your inconsideration of our safety is my problem. You do realize that you can kill us with that ability, right?"

Brick looked at his little buddy,"Maybe there is still hope for her as well..."

"Oh, that completely flew over my head. I was completely unaware of my ability to burn things to a crisp could hurt people while I was using it to burn things to a crisp. Things are _suddenly_ so clear to me now, Captain Obvious."

Mord looked up and noticed the sudden melancholy look in his face, "Brick... Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I crossed the line, amigo."

"Your smartass remarks aren't cute, dammit!"

"It's alright," the giant said as he watched as his favorite couple bicker with one another. "I realize that I've been too bloodthirsty."

"I'm sorry for not being cute helpless little girl to stroke your tiny male ego. I strive to make you feel better about yourself and act like I'm in constant need of protection."

"Well that was easy," Mordecai refocused his attention on his rifle. "If only those two could learn from us."

"Do not pull the sexism card. Your recklessness does not apply to this situation."

"Nah," Brick sat down next to his thin friend. "That would be two easy."

"I'll be sure to remember that *cough* chauvinistic pig *cough*."

* * *

Eventually they reached an area with a huge manor on top of a plateau. The Vault Hunters slowly approached the house while checking if a horde would intercept them.

Lilith looked at the over sized treehouse, "Well that certainly does not look like something from a cheap horror film.

Suddenly, an Echo called out on their Echo device to them.

"Sweet, you made it all the way here alive! I'll get the lift down but it'll probably take a bit to hand crank the bastard all the way to 'ya. Probably wanna shoot any of those skull munchers that traddle in."

"That must be Ned," Roland murmured to himself. Suddenly, he heard the moans of the undead creeping closer to their location. Roland readied his weapon and signaled to the rest to do the same. "Alright, everybody get in position and hold this spot."

"Hello, dead people!" the red haired Siren called out in glee while preparing for battle.

Mordecai immediately sent out his bird, Bloodwing, to do some recon while Brick readied his rocket launcher. Everybody heard the loud call from Bloodwing which signaled that the horde was approaching. Mordecai looked in his sights and awaited for the first undead bastard to appear in his scope. When one finally did, Mordecai pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet took the target's head off.

"Boom," he uttered as he began chuckling to himself. Brick fired his rocket into the incoming horde and watched as it took them apart. Lilith and Roland stayed back for support.

Roland looked out beyond the bridge and noticed that there was another swarm coming up. He turned to Lilith noticing that she hasn't turned on her Phasewalk. Knowing that she would say something if he commanded her to do so, he decided to take a different approach.

"Well gee," Roland didn't even try to hide his contempt in his voice as Lilith kept spraying her Sub-Machine Gun into the countless zombies. "My poor and stupid male mind has no idea how to handle these zombies. If only there was a way for a super cool, but self-assured magical woman to show us, poor stupid guys, how by turning invisible and setting them aflame."

Lilith stopped firing and smirked at her dark-skinned "stupid male" friend. She placed a hand on her hip and lifted up her other hand to shoot him the bird as she entered her Phasewalk.

"Well that went well," Roland turned his attention back to the battle. Everyone did everything they could to survive the endless onslaught of the undead. Lilith set countless zombies on fire in her phase mode. Brick blasted and punched his way through the mass. Mordecai blasted countless zombies in the head. Roland did everything he could to make sure the platform was clear. But it seemed like it took an eternity. Because the zombies spawned around and near the elevator, it was easy to be surrounded and overwhelmed by them.

"Hang on then," Ned finally said through their Echo devices. "Going as fast as these hands want to go."

"Hang on," Roland was perturbed and exclaimed while blasting a zombie's head off. "We've been fighting these bastards forever. YOU NEED TO HURRY THE HELL UP."

"Oh come on," the doctor seemed exasperated. "Don't act like you've never had to wait on a hand cranked elevator during a zombie outbreak before."

"Why the hell is there a hand cranked anything now and days?" The Siren pondered as she poured fiery led into a pour zombie. "This isn't the 21st Century."

Roland turned towards Mordecai who was becoming overwhelmed by the horde. He was desperately trying to fend them off, but it was to no avail. And then with one pull of his trigger, the unthinkable happened.

"Son of a bitch," he yelled out while unleashing his blade into a poor zombie's skull. "Out of ammo."

"Shit!" Roland immediately sprinted towards his direction, but his line of sight on Mordecai was becoming non-existent. His partner was becoming engulfed in the horde. "This is not good."

Lilith tried to reach Mordecai, but was preoccupied with her own problems. Brick was too busy in his own blood rage to even notice that Mordecai was in trouble. Suddenly, a loud cry caught both of their attention.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I NEVER DIE!"

"Everybody!" Roland called out. "Head to his position immediately!"

The massive tank of meat immediately started barreling through the zombie horde calling out, "Don't worry, Morry. I'm coming!"

Lilith however was not as successful as him however and struggled to make way, "You are a real pain in the ass!"

Roland didn't say anything. The only thing on his mind was saving him. He refused to allow another teammate of his to die. Not again. Roland fought like a man possessed. He shot at anything in his way taking down snarling undead after snarling undead. Finally, he reached his fallen comrade and injected an Insta-Health in his sternum.

"On your feet, soldier!"

But they were defenseless. Roland could not administer the Insta-Health without putting down his rifle and Mordecai ran out of ammo on all of his weapons. Bloodwing could not revive him as it was too busy fighting off the undead. Refusing to let it end like this, Roland reached in his Storage Device and unleashed his Scorpio turret. The machine immediately started pouring led into them while the containment device started providing ammo and health on the fly. Roland however was too focused on the health of his companion to care.

"Yo, Mordecai grabbed his rifle and his ammo. "I got this amigo. Thanks."

The two covered each other's back and made their way back to the elevator.

"Everybody make your way back to the elevator now," Roland called outlouder than the burst of his rifle. "We can't separate ourselves again."

"Well, alright Commander Badass," Lilith snarked and entered her phasewalk just moments before a zombie swiped at her and thus began burning alive...or dead.

All four made it to the clearing and awaiting for the elevator. This seemed poignant as if they were finally coming to a close to the heated and drawn out battle. They all were firing in all directions and kept their poise until a transmission from the dear doctor discouraged them.

"Oh, son of a bitch, I just dropped the dumbwaiter. My hands just let go. I'll get ya up, hang on."

"Are you fucking serious?!" Lilith called out completely exasperated.

Roland did not even bother to tell her to focus again. He too was growing annoyed with the doctor's incompetence of turning a hand crank,"We don't have time. How much do you have turn?"

"Almost," He responded. "I'm getting there keep yer shirt on."

"Is everyone on this planet trying to kill us directly or indirectly?" Mordecai asked while looked down his sighs.

"Everybody just focus on the task at hand,"Roland did his best to reassure his crew, but he wasn't too sure himself. "Just try not to die."

"What an inspiring speech," Lilith rolled her eyes without letting go of the trigger. "I feel completely amped."

Brick grew tired of the wait and leaped to the descending elevator. The other Vault Hunters glanced up to him to see what he was doing before turning their attention back to the battlefield.

"Brick, what are you doing?" Mordecai called out.

Brick didn't respond and kept climbing up the rope with his bare hands. At the top of the rope, he reached the metal pulley and placed his feet against it thus dangled upside down.

"If I can get this thing down there to 'ya, there's a good chance you'll make it out alive," the Doctor called out through the transmission seemingly unaware of the giant on under his pulley.

"I didn't know you had a brother, Captain Obvious," Lilith smirked.

Brick began yanking the rope with off of his might and began lowering the elevator himself.

"All right, big guy," Mordecai cheered. "I knew all that muscle was good for somethin'."

Like a one man lift, Brick did not relent. The man eventually caught the eye of the Doctor who stopped and gazed upon the behemoth.

"Impressive..."

Finally, the lift reached the ground, and Brick dropped to meet his allies below. The giant of a man fired a rocket and headed face first into the horde with reckless abandon for his well-being.

"Mordecai," Roland got in front and continued firing. "Get on the lift. Lilith will get on after you and then, I'll follow."

"What about Brick?"

They all glanced at the monster of a man and watched as he tore a poor zombie apart with his bare hands.

"He'll get on when he wants," Roland ordered. "Just get on the lift."

Mordecai got on the lift and Lilith followed just as Roland demanded. Roland fired a few rounds into the crowd, but the lift didn't go back up. Apparently the medical expert above did not get the memo about Brick."

"Don't act all fancy and waste my time," the man called out. "Get on the damn thing!"

Brick reluctantly got on after realizing that he was the holdup. The elevator began to raise and all of the Vault Hunters took a deep sigh of relief.

* * *

They healed all their wounds before entering the house, but they were all weary about what they would find inside.

"Look," Lilith called out. "The guy already seems pretty shady, and we haven't even met him yet. This is like a bad internet date thing. I don't trust him."

"What other choice do we have?" Roland shrugged while checking on Mordecai. "He is the only person here who has a clue what's going on and we need him if we want to save this planet from a zombie invasion."

"Saving the planet?" Mordecai raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, but I thought we were blackmailing the Jakob's corp?"

Roland quickly backtracked as if he were trying to show his team that he was bad guy," Um...we are. But we need to save the planet first, right guys...for completely selfish reasons."

Brick and Mordecai narrowed their eyes at him and were satisfied with the answer so they turned their attention to the derelict home. The soldier took a deep breath as if he were coming up for air. Lilith, however, was not too convinced of Roland's moral compass of apparent lack thereof.

"You know, Roland," she smirked at her fellow Vault Hunter's act. "Just because you are a mercenary does not mean you are truly one at heart. You were always a hero first. Remember that. Be yourself and not who you think you should be, dude.."

"I don't know what your tal-" Roland responded by was quickly cut off.

"Sure, you don't," Lilith sauntered off with an all-knowing smile.

Roland shook his head and followed behind. The Vault Hunters approached the door which was surprisingly open. They walked through with their weapons readied and prepared for battle. Then saw a man sitting in a chair facing away from them holding a beer in one hand. He must have heard them walk in because he began talking.

"I probably went about this all the wrong way," he monologue-d to them. "I'm a doctor; I make people better. I just wanted everyone to be okay."

The crew lowered their weapons and continued to listen to what he had to say. They noticed that their was something familiar about this man, but could not put their finger on it.

Dr. Ned suddenly turned around and made his face known to them. He looked exactly like Dr. Zed, the other doctor they met at Fyrestone. Hell, it must have been Dr. Zed. The only difference between them was 'Dr. Ned' had the obviously fake mustache that strangely grew outside his surgical mask.

"I made the zombies. I was never as good as my totally-not-made-up brother, Zed, and we're totally different people," he suspiciously pointed out and then turned his attention to his bottle. "Ah, I need a drink."

"Wow," Lilith was stunned. "In order for us to save the day, we need the help of some alcoholic doctor. This day just keeps getting better."

* * *

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